Mission to Peru

We all go into a mission trip thinking, “I am going to change someone’s life.” Instead, we walk away being imprinted with marks that will forever change our life. A mission trip can have you come back with many different emotions as well as new perspectives towards everything in life.

In this blog, I’ll explain how my week was like in Peru and what I walked away with. I can tell you now, this trip was very similar to my to Africa. Too many memories but each will stay with me as I walk through the journey God has planned for me. I loved every moment of each day. I loved being able to wake up saying, “This is a new day. What is there to come?”

Peru has breath taking sights to see. I believe no matter how much in property a place (or person) can look, there is beauty to be found. We jumped right into the trip the instant we got there. We would start each day with a group devotional. I enjoyed this time because we were all together spending time in the word. We got to learn new things about one another during these times as well as being able to be vulnerable if needed. It was a time of prayer, building relationships, and encouraging one another.

As the day goes, we had to put further 182% of our energy allllll day. It was a blessing to see God work and give us continuous energy when we started to get worn out. We participated in sports, skits and bible lesson for VBS (vacation bible school), home visits, painting, dancing, visiting a special needs school, and giving testimonies.

Morning videos and pictures are out of order of how the trip went.

This was a visit to a village. We played soccer, someone gave a testimony, a bible lesson was given, and then a few of the students put together a dance to show us. There was a dance team that was insanely talented at what they did. Each memeber of the crew then shared their testimony of how God blessed them with the talent to dance and how it changed their life.

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Pictured here are a few members from the dance team. On this day we met up at a local court and participated in sports activities and vacation Bible school. This was the day I was to give my testimony to the students.

This is A picture caption at night on our way home from a visit in the village.

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This video is just proof of my abilities and skills in soccer….ha that’s a joke but I really did score!!!

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This video was taken the night of independence for Peru, July 28th.

This is a little kiddo that came with his mom for another VBS and another local village.

This little man instantly became friends with me through soccer and was my teammate.
He enjoyed bouncing a bouncy ball, chasing it, and catching it.

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This is on our way to home visits as well as meeting up with other families and students. During home visit we will talk to the families and then we would pray upon them.

This picture is our team coming back from home visits .

This is our amazing team minus a few others who were with us daily.

This was taken during our last morning devotional at Rogers beach house.

Picture it is a group of people we met with one day in their local area. ​

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​This video was put together by another person in a short summary of what they captured. They made a video for each individual team member.

We did face art, hair, and bracelets 🙂

Oh yes, this is me sleeping outside one night. Funny story, I woke up in pouring rain!! But I still enjoyed the experience haha

We had translators who would help us communicate to the people in Peru. It was difficult at times when we didn’t have one, but we would make ends meet and try our best to communicate with one another. The people were patient with us and were willing to do their best to help communicate with us.

One of the days there, I caught a man digging through trash on the side of the road. As to what he was looking for and for who is beyond what I know. But what I do know is that it is heart breaking to know that there are people out there searching to survive and where we have nearly everything we want at our feet. Witnessing that, I became upset with myself. Why? Because it seemed so unreal. So unreal because my life is nearly too perfect from what I see others go through. I became upset because at times I feel like I have things so rough and that I can not do certain things because of a lack of money. Well, there are other out there who have it worse and are fighting each and everyday to be where they are now. In that moment, I realized I needed to change my mindset towards life. I need to not put my indentity in other things, but only in Christ alone.

During Devos we were paired with a partner in each morning different memebers would share with their partner. My partner and I discussed Psalms 121. If you’re wondering why it sounds for Milear probably because you know the song I will praise you in this storm. From Psalms 121 my partner and I felt best to discuss that God is our Almighty. He holds us, he guides us, he will not let us slip, he protects us, he is our shield. As a person we need to allow these verses to guide us to point our vision to Christ in all things and to trust him and every season of life we go through. We are going to have our ups and downs but Christ is there to hold us. Rather than searching to fill out voids with other things, we need to look up to Christ and allow him to for fill our happiness, our sorrows, loneliness, insecurities, or any other thing that we are going through. Often times, we turn to those that will tell us what we want to hear, rather than what we need to hear. We need to address Christ before we address our community. Our true community. What stood out to me most on this trip is that God has a plan for me and a plan for you. But our plans are different. We are all living our unique lives in different ways but all for the same reason…for Christ. He is our right hand. We can rely on him for the things we need and that should be enough peace. We are all broken and we all come from different stories and backgrounds but that doesn’t mean God loves anyone any less than another. He loves us equally. It can take you a thousand steps to walk away from the Lord but it one takes ONE to RETURN.

I cannot put into words how amazing this trip was, The memories I have walked away with, The imprint that are left on me, and the work that God did. I wish I could share more of this trip but like I said above I do not know how to put it into words so I hope this was enough for you to get an understanding of my trip to Peru.